Reaching Hearts Through Music and Words

Birth Stories

March 2011 – Arrow’s first week of life outside the womb – I am 22 years old.

Arrow Truth Goddard….”you named him what??” Yes Arrow, his name is Arrow!! 🙂

Our strong Arrow turns 6 today!

Happy Birthday to our precious little man!

Arrow is physically strong yet kind and caring. He’s not afraid to kiss his mum and play babies with his little sisters. He’s as tough as nails and has still never needed to see a doctor. He is our warrior, strong willed and stubborn yet loving and tender. He’s serious and doesn’t always see the funny side,yet we can still make him laugh. We love him dearly and our family wouldn’t be complete without our Arrow.
Let me share with you his story which was posted on my old original blog (The Heart Of Our Home) – here is is again for you in case you missed it.

I fell pregnant with Arrow when our first bub Francis was around 8 months old. We were VERY excited to be expecting again, and we prayed and prayed for this baby after suffering a miscarriage only 3 months earlier. Right from the start I knew this baby was strong, though. I got through the first trimester with the usual morning sickness. Constant nausea but no vomiting. By 16 weeks I felt fantastic and we began planning a natural birth. I wanted more than anything to birth this baby into the world as naturally as possibly. This was the first birth that we really planned properly. I read many books on natural birthing, and God worked on my heart and helped to overcome my fears. I have ALWAYS had a terrifying fear of giving birth – especially without an epidural. And God gently worked on me and we did it! Would I do a natural birth again? Yes I would. Did it hurt? YES it did. But do I need to be afraid? NO I don’t. God designed women’s bodies to give birth, and I did it!! It was such a massive moment of transformation in my life.
Later in my pregnancy I couldn’t get away from the scripture in Psalm 127

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.

God gave me a strong revelation about children that I believe is very different from the world’s thinking of children. Our children are VERY important.

From this moment on I decided that I would dedicate my life to raising children for the Lord. With full support from my husband. I decided that nothing would come in the way, no job, no career, no ministry would be more important to me than raising my family in the best way that God shows me.

This is why we named our son Arrow.

He is our Arrow, our weapon of defense against our enemies. He is our reward and gift from God. We are very blessed.

His middle name is ‘Truth.’ This stands for the truth of God’s word coming to pass as we birth our Arrow into the world. We dedicated our son completely to the Lord.

We didn’t know if we were having a boy or a girl until after the birth, but during my later stages of pregnancy we had only picked one name – Arrow – I couldn’t even think of any girls names. God knew though, that we were having a son and he placed him in our womb for a special reason.

I was very over due – 2 weeks and 2 days in fact, before I finally gave in to the doctors and came into the hospital to be induced. Everyone thought I was crazy waiting for so long past my due date, but I knew in my heart that my baby needed more time.

The doctor broke my waters, and proclaimed that my baby has a head full of hair!! Wow, we were very excited, yet nervous for what was ahead of us.

The contractions came on steady all morning and Luke and I walked around and around the hospital grounds. I had a really strong contraction right in front of the waiting room of the medical clinic. I grabbed Luke by the scruff of his shirt and leaned over him, clamped my eyes shut and breathed deeply. “Okay, we need to go back into our room NOW.” So back inside we went, where we spent the entire length of our labour alone in our hospital room. We hardly saw a midwife and no doctors were in sight. I was doing quite well up until the last couple of hours of labour where I started to lose confidence. I sat on the birthing ball the entire time I was going through transition labour. Luke sat behind me, rubbing my back and praying. I began moaning like a cow, I couldn’t help it – I had to let the noise out, it was the only way I could cope. I was sweating, feeling sick & light-headed. I was fanning myself profusely with my orange pregnancy record book. My body was so exhausted that I almost dropped of to sleep sitting up between contractions. (I had no idea that I was probably fully dilated and ready to push for a while but I just kept sitting there on that ball!)

In agony I proclaimed to Luke that I had had enough and was going to see if the heat of a shower would help with the pain. Luke helped me into the shower. I was still moaning, and I stamped my feet in the water. I felt weird, I can’t explain it, but I had an overwhelming urge that …something…was about to fall out of my body. (I later discovered that that something was indeed a baby!) Luke pressed the button to call the midwife and she comes into the shower cubicle.

Midwife: “What’s the matter?”

Me: “I think it’s coming out!!”

Midwife: “Get out of the shower..”

Me: “Noooo”

Midwife: “You have to hop out now”

Me: “NOOOOO”

Midwife: “The baby is coming out and I’m not ready to catch it while you are standing in the shower, so hop out NOW”

Still moaning, but much louder now; I’m helped into a wheel chair and ran into the delivery room.

The midwife wants me to get up on the bed but I feel the baby literally dropping inside of me and I gag and drop to my knees on the floor.

In this moment I completely panicked, I looked in despair at my pale husband and yelped in a quiet voice: “Luke, help me!”

Everything else is pretty much a blur to me. I can remember the midwife telling me that I couldn’t give birth on the floor and she pulled out a birthing stool, which I sat on with Luke behind me.

Arrow shot out of me on that stool with such great force, I didn’t even push. He was living up to his name already.
He was out in – 2-3 minutes.I had a 2nd degree tear!

He was my biggest baby yet: 8lbs, 5oz,

Born 7:34pm on the 21st March 2011.

We were overjoyed. I needed rest, Arrow breastfed well and I showered and we all snuggled up together in our room exhausted, yet deeply satisfied.

6 years old now!

Our first sunflower and our Arrow

We are so glad he is a part of our family!

Blessings, Peta

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Holly turned 2 today. How happy we are to have Holly in our lives! I fell pregnant with Holly after we lost a baby to miscarriage at 12 weeks along. So I guess this makes Holly a ‘rainbow baby.’ Straight after our miscarriage we moved twice within a 3 month period and for the next year experienced the toughest financial time we have ever been through. All this combined with morning sickness of a new pregnancy left me with quite severe antenatal depression throughout my entire pregnancy.

Holly’s birth was very straight forward. The Lord knew exactly what I needed. I birthed Holly without pain (thanks to an epidural) and the following months after she was born God began restoring the joy within my spirit. That’s why her middle name is Joy. She was the most placid sweet little baby. She slept well for the first year of her life and rarely cried. I called her my angel baby. Her toddler antics make us laugh and laugh and she is so crazy and funny, we love her to bits. She loves her little sister Willow SO much and is still learning to be gentle. She was also born on my late grandma, Audrey’s, birthday. So we gave her the middle name Audrey also. Holly is my 4th baby and second born daughter.

Holly’s spent her birthday opening gifts, a little bike, a dolly, a block game and some new clothes and pjs. She went to church and we found out that daddy who was going to work in the afternoon was going to be able to be home with us after all. So Holly had a ride on the back of Savannah’s bike after lunch, then back inside for a big screen movie on our projector and popcorn. The day finished with birthday cake in her PJs.

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In which I finally overcome my fear of giving birth and the Lord was faithful until the end.

Our sweet baby daughter Willow is one week and 2 days old today and I want to write down the details of her birth before they become foggy. Giving birth has been a touchy subject for me over the years and with past births fear has gripped and overwhelmed me and I have asked for epidurals before even having a painful contraction. I chose pain relief out of fear and not because I was actually in much pain. But this is a topic for another post perhaps. This time I really wanted to have a natural birth without an epidural – I believed this would be best for me and my baby. I spent the last month of pregnancy mentally preparing myself by reading articles and positive natural birth stories and listening to podcasts and periscopes from the natural birth and baby care website. I also memorised Isiah 41:10 along with the children because it was their memory verse. And this verse rolled around and around in my head the entire time I was in labour:

So do not fear for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

I was overdue and booked into the hospital to have an induction at 41 weeks and 2 days pregnant. I really didn’t want to be induced this time and was hoping and praying I could avoid it. At 41 weeks along I was startled out of my sleep at 6am with the first contraction that made me think “ouch!” I had been having ‘practice’ contractions for weeks but this was the first contraction I’d felt that made me feel like I could actually be in labour. We continued on with the days plans of going to my scheduled doctors appointment and doing a little grocery shopping. It was school holidays and Luke had already started his three weeks off of work. Luke buckled all the children into the car for me and dropped me off at the doctor while he took our four kids to the library.

I had a few mild contractions while waiting for the doctor. When I saw her she checked me and said I was 2cm dilated and did a stretch and sweep. It was nowhere near as bad as I was anticipating it to be. She sent me to the hospital to be hooked up to the CTG machine for a while. I dashed into the supermarket first and bought heaps of snacks because it was nearly lunch time and there was no way I was going to sit in a hospital room with all our little ones without lots of food. We all sat in the delivery suite and watched the CTG machine measure baby’s heart beat. The children were quite entertained. Francis says “I’m really glad I’m not a girl.” Then he looks at Savannah and says “you are going to have a baby come out of you too one day” Holly dropped half a packet of rice crackers on the floor and the boys laughed and said that, “this is so much fun we’re having a picnic!” Oh they are funny!

We made it back home again and I made sure I ate a big lunch. I wanted to make sure I had enough energy to get me through the next few hours. I was still having contractions coming every 10 to 15 minutes – some I had to breathe through but I was still feeling pretty relaxed at this point. We settled in at home and I had a big rest on the couch after finishing off packing my hospital bag.

One proud daddy

After the tea and bedtime routine we kissed and tucked everyone into bed and Luke and I settled on the couch with a big screen movie with our projector. I became increasingly uncomfortable during the movie. I kept sitting up and down and changing positions or I would get up and pace around the lounge room. We timed the contractions for a couple of hours on an app on Luke’s phone. They were coming around 7 minutes apart. I was needing to stop and breathe through the contractions and was getting a little hot and sweaty. At around 11pm we decided to call our babysitters to come. A lovely lady from our church and one of her lovely adult daughters. Luke drove me to the hospital and I had a few strong contractions in the car on the way there – thankfully only 25 minutes away.

When we arrived at the hospital it was the usual routine of being hooked up to the CTG machine. Our baby’s heart rate dropped with every contraction, which seemed to worry the midwife a little and so began a night of continuous monitoring. I was in labour all night long. At one stage the doctor was called in and gave me a round of fluids through the drip to see if that would help baby’s heart rate. I asked to sit in the bath but the midwife on duty said she ‘didn’t like doing baths’…I tried really hard to not get upset. I then asked to get in the shower for some pain relief but she couldn’t get the wireless monitors to work. So I sat on the birthing ball but baby’s heart rate seemed to drop more during contractions when I was in this position. Again I tried to stay positive and upbeat but I was beginning to tire. Luke was right with me the whole time and kept bringing me cups of coconut water to sip between contractions. I was a bit annoyed that my labour was taking so long – I was sure it would be quicker this time seeming this was my 5th baby.

Around 7am the next morning the contractions were strong enough that I was letting out a little moan with each one. They hadn’t come any closer together though – still about 10-15 minutes apart. Then by 8am the contractions disappeared. Luke fell asleep next to me in the chair, his head resting against the bed. The midwife had disappeared to the next room because another lady had arrived in labour and was clearly about to push. (She was SO loud) I had to go to the toilet so without the midwife’s consent I pulled all the cords out of the CTG machine and let myself lose! I was ready to throw those monitors out the window by that stage. I layed down on my side and attempted to doze off for a while whilst listening to the lady next door screaming and using the F-word quite liberally.

I woke up to that beautiful sound of a newborn crying. Only it wasn’t my baby. That was it – I officially lost the plot. I started blubbering and crying my head off, the more the baby next door cried the more I cried. I had been awake all night in labour, I was tired and losing it. One of the other midwives came in to write some notes and saw me in my state on the bed. She asked me if I was okay. I half nodded and shook my head at the same time and managed to blubber “it’s the baby crying. The baby wont stop crying. It’s not my baby. Where’s my baby??…” And I would cry again.

They rang my doctor and it was decided that she would come back and break my waters to see if it would help get things going but all the midwives were busy with the other lady who was apparently losing a bit of blood. So the doctor wouldn’t come until 12pm and we were ushered into another quiet room (away from the baby) so we could get some quiet rest before the doctor came.

While laying in the next bed I had a few whopping contractions that made me want to leap out of the bed. I had to moan through them and grab onto Luke’s arm. They kept coming every 7-10 minutes again so I sat up on the birthing ball and while leaning forward onto Luke’s lap. I started moaning like a cow. Thankfully baby’s heart rate got more consistent with the overnight readings so they had let me go without the monitors for a while. I kept going to the toilet every 5 minutes and was feeling more and more uncomfortable. I got in the shower in the room we were in and worked through more contractions in there whilst still moaning through each one. Luke stood nearby in the bathroom still supporting me. The hot shower was so soothing on my back, it was just what I needed. In the shower I would go from thinking “I can’t keep doing this” then I would try to snap myself out of it and think “I’ll never have to have that same contraction again and every contraction is bringing me closer to my baby” I imagined my cervix stretching and tried to imagine what my baby’s face would look like. I realised if I wanted to do this without an epidural I would have to stay positive. I didn’t know it at the time but I was in transition labour and by 11:30am I was fully dilated.

The next morning when Luke brought all the kids into the hospital. The girls are obsessed with their new sister and can’t get enough of her.

The next hour was a blur. We went back to the delivery suite. All I remember is me pushing in lots of different positions, at first I pushed standing up, and the doctor was touching me way too much and I snapped at her to leave me alone. I would push and the doctor would ‘stretch me’ trying to get the baby’s head in the right position. I’m not quite sure what she was doing down there but it was more painful than the contractions and I firmly asked her to stop, which she did. After pushing for an hour, my baby’s heart rate was dropping very low when I had contractions and the the doctor declared that the baby needs to come out quickly! She put the ventouse suction cap on my baby’s head. By this stage the room was full of midwives and two doctors I had my eyes closed the entire time and I was wailing like a baby. I remember crying out loud “why is this taking so long!!” I had a few almighty contractions where my body just took over and her head came down the birth canal. I gagged and was moaning very very loudly. I think I won the screaming contest with the lady next door. I had wanted a quiet calm birth but I couldn’t help it I had to scream. At times it was a triumphant scream rather than a scream of pain. Anyhow, I screamed. I screamed the baby’s head out and with only one little push came the glorious feeling of the rest of her body slipping out with ease.

I’ve started welling up with tears as I write this because that feeling directly after your baby comes out is something I can’t explain in words. My baby is here! She was placed up on my chest. I held her and Luke and I shared a moment in awe of our beautiful new daughter and the miracle that God had preformed before our eyes. She was perfect. She didn’t make any noise and was pinking up nicely. The doctor gave her a check over and gave her an agar score of 9. Relief swept over me and all the pain was gone.

Francis meets Willow

Holly meets Willow

Arrow meets Willow

Savannah meets Willow

I praise God for the blessing of our new daughter Willow. I have watched her grow in my belly and I am so thankful for her. She is very precious to us. I feel like I have a special bond with her as she is the 5th child in her family and I am also the 5th child of my family. If my parents hadn’t decided to have a 5th baby I wouldn’t be here. Willow is a blessed baby, she is supposed to be here. I am so thankful that Luke and I said yes when God spoke to our hearts about having another baby. We named her Faith as her middle name because it took faith to say yes to having another baby when at the time it didn’t look like we could ‘afford’ another by a worldly point of view. But during my pregnancy God has blessed Luke with a new aged care job with better hours and we were even able to move to a bigger house. With a thankful heart we welcome these little ones into our home.